Development and testing of a tuned mass damper for overhead contact rail systems

This paper presents the design, development and validation of a tuned mass damer prototype for the railways field, particularly for overhead contact rail systems. The goal of this research is to prove the efficiency of this kind of absorbers in reducing the vibrations in rigid catenary systems with railway traffic. For this reason, a prototype of Tuned mass damper has been developed from the results obtained from analytical calculation and dynamic symulations performed by means of a Finite Element Method (FEM) software called SolidWorks. In order to validate the prototype, a test area of rigid catenary has been installed in the Technology Centre of Malaga, where dynamic system response tests were performed. The results obtained in tests have proved the effectiveness of this kind of dampers in railway electrification field.